Troupe Abridges Bible (with A Chuckle)

THEATER BRIEFS Sun-Sentinel wire services

July 30, 1995

The Reduced Shakespeare Company is in the business of milking sacred cows.

Borrowing the initials of its British royal counterpart, the California-based troupe created its first full-length show by shrinking the Bard's entire oeuvre - the sonnets as well as the plays - down to a single evening. The company then applied its reductive talents to all of American history. Now, thanks to a commission from Washington's Kennedy Center, its target is the greatest story ever told, or as the RSC prefers to call it, "the greatest story ever accepted as fact.''

If you find that offensive, this is not the show for you. But while the shameless-and-proud members of the RSC claim to have put the "fun" back in fundamentalism, they're also well aware that they're preaching to the converted. And it's difficult to dispute the logic behind their assertion that God must have a sense of humor because he created people with a sense of humor.

Performed by Matthew Croke, Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor (who also wrote the script, together with Adam Long), The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged) divides the Good Book into two acts - one for the Old Testament and one for the New.

These amiable performers can be forgiven if they occasionally let characters and stories from one act slip into the other, just as they can be forgiven for resorting to cornball humor, puns, old jokes and for repeatedly spritzing the audience with water.

The creation of Eve is depicted as an Alien-style eruption in the rib cage of Martin's Adam. (Later, the question is raised: "Computers were in the Garden of Eden?" The reply: "Eve had an Apple.'')

The role of Moses falls to the scholarly looking Tichenor, who regales us with the top 10 rejected commandments. He elicited boos when he read: "Thou shalt let the poor fend for themselves."But he quickly apologized and corrected himself: "That's the `Contract with America.'''

The RSC's origins as a Renaissance fair act, as well as Croke and Martin's backgrounds as circus clowns, surface frequently. Martin juggles the fire from Moses' burning bush. Not to be outdone, Croke balances a ladder on his chin. After intermission, all three perform magic tricks as stand-ins for Jesus' miracles.

Jackson backs musical

Michael Jackson, whose artistic interests know no bounds, is about to go legit. Not that he isn't already. It's just a way of saying he's getting involved for the first time in a conventional stage musical, with a story line and all the rest. The show is Sisterella, a black version of the Cinderella story, and it has dates this fall at Musical Theater Works in New York and next spring at Pasadena Playhouse in California.

Larry Hart, a 1978 Grammy winner and artist on Jackson's MJJ label, is author-lyricist-composer for Sisterella. Anthony Stimac, artistic director of Musical Theater Works, described Hart's music as contemporary pop. Although set at the turn of the century, the story is also very contemporary, Stimac said, exploring greed in the family of a young girl who inherits a vast fortune. The New York production will be billed as "by arrangement with Michael Jackson."In Pasadena, a publicist for the theater said it will be "Michael Jackson presents ..."Jackson and associate Jerry Greenberg will be listed as executive producers. "They're putting up a lot of the money," the publicist said.

The New York production opens Nov. 8; the Pasadena production will open March 17.